I've now settled on a game I think I'm going to be playing for many months ... here's what I did in case anyone is inspired by it -
- Started historical league in 1978 w/ real life minors
- Added DH to both leagues (personal preference)
- Fictionalized all coach and player names
- Acted as commish and quick-simmed until World Series 1982
- Took control of the apparently worst team at end of 1982 regular season. Chicago White Sox were one of the prime candidates so I took the job.
A funny thing happened - I discovered after I took the Chicago job that I missed a checkbox and there were no draftees in the amateur draft pool for the years I quicksimmed. So for 4 years there was a draft with no draftees. No wonder the White Sox and a few others had a hard time rebuilding! I suppose not having the young talent kind of skewed things, but thank God there were 60 rounds in the 1982-1983 draft
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I plan to play through every game if at all possible. If I need a change of pace I can always fire up exhibition mode and play a best-of-7 series with the Brooks Robinson Orioles or the Hershiser Dodgers or other landmark teams.
Also a pro-tip and one thing to look out for with the minor leagues ... some years IRL the team/affiliation wasn't in operation. For the 1978-79 White Sox, the rookie league team wasn't in operation. Also I saw the Mariners (I think) had a AAA and A and rookie team but no AA. I had to edit the game to make sure each team had at least 4 minors levels.